March comes with a slight sense of relief. Although many of the club thrive on the mud and damp of the XC season, for most the third month of the year means spikes go back in the cupboard and the evenings start to get noticeably lighter. That lifting of the winter gloom seemed quite evident in March’s results.

Nineteen runners is not a huge turn-out – perhaps some were still in shock from the snow – but with nine and half of those runners getting PB’s and one being a first-timer it was certainly a challenge for those that didn’t.

On the night, first home was Dana Carter. This was great to see as she hadn’t previously managed to get under 20 minutes and this time having gone off at a quick pace she smashed her previous best by over 30 seconds to come home in 19:24 seven seconds ahead of Michael Furness.

Michael himself has had an excellent couple of weeks and he managed to get ahead of Amy Farnfield in the final straight as they also recorded PB’s by healthy chunks. Amy’s third place means that she is now one of only two potential winners for the season.

Behind those two was a titanic four way battle between Matthew Brooks, Huw Morgan-Jones, Jo Sharples and Warren Rose. They all started within ten seconds of each other and all finished six seconds apart in the order stated with all but Warren earning PB’s and even his was a season’s best.

Behind them were Ruth Mitchell (Big PB), Liz Peters (Small PB), Billy Mead (Equaled PB) and Joe Bidlake-Hull (Small PB). All of this meant that even though Joe BH got a PB he still only finished 11^th – harsh!

However, Joe is still leading the way in the overall championship and the situation is this: It is three from five for the podium with Joe being chased by four women! Amy Farnfield has to win the final Stag and hope Joe is outside the top 8 in order to beat him to top spot. However, if Alison Bell wins the last race and Amy is outside with top ten then there would be a tie for the silver medal. What is most likely is that Alison will do battle with Liz Peters and Jo Sharples for the bronze and you can work out those possibilities for yourself!

So April is the traditional month for fast times with the light evenings and fewer clothes needed so come along on the 4^th and see if your run can affect the overall standings. It would be great to have a big turn-out.